1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods of crosslinking compounds and materials made by these methods
2. Description of Related Art
As is known in the art, chemical crosslinking involves a chemical reaction wherein two separate chemical moieties (e.g. those on separate polymeric molecules such as polypeptides) are coupled together. Chemical crosslinking has applications in a wide variety of contexts. Cross-linking is used for example in synthetic polymer chemistry for example to alter the material properties of a polymeric composition. Crosslinking is also used in the context of biological systems to couple macromolecules such as polypeptides together, for example to create and/or characterize and/or modulate macromolecular interactions. A variety of other uses for crosslinking methodologies are also well known in the art, for example sterilization procedures (e.g. those using a dialdehyde compounds such as glutaraldehyde).
A variety of methodologies, agents and reaction conditions for crosslinking various compounds are known in the art. In exemplary methods, crosslinkable moieties on a compound (e.g. primary amines of polypeptides) are reacted with a crosslinking agent having at least two functional groups that are reactive toward the moieties (e.g. using crosslinking agents such as glutaraldehyde). Because the material properties of crosslinked compounds can depend upon the reaction conditions under which the compounds were crosslinked, processes designed to modulate such crosslinking reactions are highly desirable.